Defining Sustainability:A Virtual Tour Part One

• The Alternate Energy and Environment Center (AEEC) 1975 by students and faculty

• Response to the energy crisis of the 1970's. • Demonstrate alternative methods of

producing and using resources, particularly energy, food, and shelter, that were not heavily based on depleting and polluting sources of fossil fuels.

• Create experiential and interdisciplinary learning experiences.

By Michael R. Edelstein, Ph.D.Professor of Environmental Studies and

Sustainability Ramapo College of NJ 1974-continuing

 

Creating a Sustainable Legacy

• provide people with the necessities of life, food, shelter, heat, electricity and water

• ecologically sustainable, able to be provided in the long-term without depleting the life-support systems such as pure air, water, soil, micro-organisms and bio-diversity of life essential for the well-being of future generations.

Public Education: Green Demonstrations

Demonstrate technologies and ideas that could easily be incorporated into a visitor’s current household and lifestyle, including:

• small-scale production of food • yard and organic waste composting • energy efficiency • minimizing use of all resources • reuse and recycling • maximizing the use of the sun to

provide energy

Building Community

Model social and community sustainability:

• full participation• climate of equality • mutual and environmental

respect• achieve personal self

reliance and collective survival

• demonstrate technological and social/community approaches

Building Community of Place

Experiential and Participatory LearningMany students experienced their first opportunity to create, understand design, and participate in shaping their setting to fit the environment.

CONVIVIAL SYSTEMS

• relatively simple • easy to use• easy to understand• participatory• easy to maintain• use local resources such as soil,

water, and the sun to provide for human needs

• integrated technology and social processes

• defining a new vernacular

The Center’s Integrated Systems

• Green Shelter• Renewable Energy• Materials Cycling• Food Production• Water Conservation

and Protection• The Lessons

Shelter: Off-Grid and Renewable Power

The sun, wind, and biomass

(wood) provided the solar schoolhouse with:

• heating, • cooling, • electricity • hot and cold water• cooking

The pioneering passive solar greenhouse

• Erected in 1974 in the midst of the first Energy Crisis to redirect people from a fossil fuel dependent world

• Used discarded or donated materials

• Off grid but never froze• The greenhouse was directly

lit and heated by the sun• The building was oriented due

south• Only the south wall was

fenestrated• The rest was tightly built and

insulated

Greenhouse as a Passive Solar Collector

In passive solar mode: • Sunlight entered the structure; • its energy was stored and re-

released automatically from thermal mass by natural processes without the use of fans or pumps run by electricity

• The building is a solar collector that collects, stores and releases energy

• temperature kept above 40 dgrs • Suitable for cool-loving plants• No fossil fuels used

Accessory Systems: Backup, Covering

Reflection in the Solar Greenhouse To assure adequate light for

optimum plant growth, many surfaces in the greenhouse were painted white to reflect light from all sides, especially the north. Storage was black.

Illustrating the Primary Uses of a Passive

Solar Greenhouse.

Winter growing of cold and temperature swing tolerant vegetables

Starting seedlings before putting them out to the garden

Extending the season for certain crops: 1. summer crops such as cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers can be grown into late fall and 2. early winter and spring crops such as brassicas can be grown earlier.